Sport: Samoa says more tests needed to help Pacific countries

The Samoa Rugby Union says it needs more test matches against tier one nations before it can truly compete on a regular basis with the big guns of world rugby.

Manu Samoa bowed out of World Cup contention on Friday with a spirited 13-5 defeat to South Africa.

The team also lost narrowly to sixth ranked Wales, and earlier this year famously upset Australia in Sydney.

The Chief Executive of the Samoa Rugby Union, Sua Peter Schuster, says those results show that the gap is closing but more still needs to be done.

"Still get more exposure to higher level rep competition and I think for us, for this year, probably 18 or 20 were top level players and the other 10 probably another level so to play more tier one level matches I think would bring out the best in the Samoan team going into the future."

Sua Peter Schuster says there also needs to be more discussions around the possibility of a Pacific Island team taking part in an expanded Super Rugby competition.